New Zealand statistics on suicide

Before the end of this year, the Auditor-General will publish a performance audit report on collecting and using information about suicides.

Our audit focuses on the information about suicides at a high level. We looked at information collected, analysed, and reported by the Chief Coroner and other coroners, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Health, and mortality review committees.

We found that a lot of data on suicide is publicly available. We haven’t been able to find a place where links to all of this public information are hosted, so we thought we could usefully do that here.

Statistical publications and data on suicide are available from the Ministry of Health. The reports are called Suicide Facts. The most up-to-date data is for 2013, which was published in November 2015.

Statistical publications and data on mortality are available from the Ministry of Health. The reports are called Mortality and Demographic Data. The most up-to-date data is for 2013 and was published in December 2015.

Since the 1990s, the Ministry of Health has commissioned and published research reports on suicide, including a set of five reports on social explanations for suicide in New Zealand. You can find other publications by searching the Ministry of Health’s website using the keyword “suicide”.